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Congress leader Anand Sharma said the process should be transparent and appointment based on merit and seniority. (Express file Photo)

Ahead of the January 24 meeting of the high-powered committee on selection of CBI director, the Congress said Monday the process should be transparent and appointment based on merit and seniority.

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Senior spokesperson of the Congress Anand Sharma said any officer against whom there are question marks or any kind of charges should not be considered for empanelment as that would be “a gross miscarriage of justice”.

He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “desperate” to select and appoint a “pliant” CBI Director to “buy future protection for all kinds of acts of omission and commission of his government”.

The former union minister said it is imperative that all matters that were considered by the Supreme Court when the new process of the appointment of CBI Director was introduced, are followed.

Prime Minister Modi heads the three-member panel. The other two members are Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and the Leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress.

“It should be a transparent process. The selection should be based on merit, seniority…No officer against whom there is any question mark, any charges during the service career should be considered for empanelment otherwise that would be a gross miscarriage of justice. That is what we want,” Sharma told reporters.

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The meeting of the high-powered committee is slated on January 24 to select the new CBI Director after the panel ousted Alok Verma from the post earlier this month. Kharge had given a dissent note against Verma’s removal.